Mar 22, 2017

The Daily Express has run a couple of stories this week criticising the BBC for a bias over Brexit.

Presumably the Express can't understand why the BBC doesn't run glowingly positive pro-Brexit stories like "BREXIT BOOM: London now cheapest of world's major global centres, says survey" which the Express pushed out on Wednesday.

The answer may be because the story, as presented by the Express, is nonsense. The Express has performed some remarkable mental gymnastics to turn an Economist Intelligence Unit report into a pro-Brexit story.

First of all, the Express has overlooked the methodology of the report into the worldwide cost of living. This is pretty crucial not least because the report is based on a dollar conversion. So yes, the UK is cheaper, if you are visiting from overseas.

The Express also downplays the EIU's assessment of the UK tumbling down the global league table. The EIU report states:

"2017 could see fallout from a number of political and economic shocks taking deeper effect. The UK has already seen sharp declines in the relative cost of living owing to the Brexit referendum and related currency weaknesses. In 2017 these are expected to translate into price rises as supply chains become more complicated and import costs rise. These in ationary effects could be compounded if sterling stages a recovery. Similarly, elections across the EU have created uncertainty as to whether other member states will face referendums of their own concerning EU membership. Levels of Greek debt, which were a catalyst of the euro zone debt crisis in 2012, have risen back up the global economic agenda."